Just another blog about Oakland A's baseball…

McCarthy to 15-Day DL; Miller Recalled

A right shoulder strain will be sending Brandon McCarthy to the disabled list. The move, retroactive to Friday May 18th, is the result of McCarthy feeling soreness between starts while he attributes to fatigue. Apparently an MRI was done and nothing appears wrong so the A’s it seems anticipate this will be a short rest and nothing worthy of additional concern.

In his place the A’s will call Jim Miller back up from Sacramento. In the interim Miller will give the A’s a much needed right-handed arm in the bullpen and I was happy to see in Jane Lee’s piece for MLB.comthat Bob Melvin feels that the A’s needed some right-handed pitchers in the pen. This means that McCarthy’s spot in the rotation has not been spoken for yet and likely another move will need to take place when the A’s presumably will have Graham Godfrey return to fill in. This probably also insures that Jarrod Parker stays put in the MLB rotation though I felt with his degradation in quality from start to start he could be a possibility for a demotion to work on his control and just regroup.

The loss of McCarthy is significant for the A’s as he leads Oakland pitchers with a 0.9 WAR. Over 58 innings in nine starts, McCarthy has 6.2 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and 0.8 HR/9 with a 2.95 ERA and 3.64 FIP. Miller meanwhile has split his time between Oakland where he has pitched nine and a third innings of 4.8 K/9, 1.9 BB/9, 1.0 HR/9, 1.93 ERA, and 3.93 FIP baseball and Sacramento where he owns 8.8 K/9, 1.5 BB/9 and no home runs for a 2.92 ERA and 1.74 FIP in 12 1/3 innings.